


Social Programming

by sunshine (sunshinepiveh)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Asexual Character, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 10:29:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17660975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinepiveh/pseuds/sunshine
Summary: Stiles, an omega, fights omega stereotypes, but even he is blind to them at times.





	Social Programming

"It could be you," Lydia argued with Stiles.

  


Stiles rolled his eyes as he closed his locker. "It won't be me."

  


This was an old argument. Every five years, the town council would select an omega from among the youth to hold title of "town omega". The past connotations of the position were dark and sordid, and Stiles was well aware of them and more than a little put off by the idea of the title altogether. Although the time when a town omega would service the town''s alphas had been over for hundreds of years, Stiles didn't like the idea that some unsuspecting youth would be saddled with the title regardless of their feelings on the matter, and regardless of the title's history.

  


Of course, these days the title meant something else entirely. Something that Lydia thought of as positive at the least, and possibly even a bit powerful. The town omega was meant to represent the omega youth. Stiles thought the position was a bit more like a trophy wife sort of deal -- the omega was meant to look like a good example and be seen. But Lydia insisted that the political power of the position was legitimate. Ostensibly, the omega of the youth would be a powerful voice in the town council and could influence policy pertaining to omega rights and status. Stiles wasn't so sure the antiquated system could be so easily budged, but what did he know?

 

"You get good grades," Lydia pointed out. "You're in the right age range. Sheriff's son. These are all good qualities."

 

"Yeah, well," Stiles waved his hand. "I'm not exactly the model omega, am I?"

 

Jackson joined them with a sneer on his face. "Frankly, I don't think you have good odds," he said.

 

Lydia smacked him sharply and Stiles glared suspiciously. On the one hand, he wanted someone to agree with him. On the other, he never wanted Jackson to agree with him, and he didn't like Jackson's implication that he was defective.

 

"What's wrong with Stiles?" Scott asked with an innocent blink as he joined them all on their way through the hall to lunch.

 

"Virgin," Jackson said simply.

 

"Dude," Scott said disapprovingly.

 

"What the fuck?" Stiles wanted to know.

 

"What?" Jackson spread his hands innocently. "Look, omegas have always been sex objects. That's not my opinion, it's a fact. And ever since the whole free love thing of the sixties or seventies, they've always been supposed to be pretty promiscuous and wild or whatever. Free spirits or some hippie horse shit. Look it up. Every five years the town council picks the best cross between valedictorian and town bicycle. You might have okay grades, Stilinski, but your virginity might be terminal at this rate."

 

"Fuck off," Stiles said with little heat as he sat down at the lunch table, tray in hand with the rest of his posse.

 

"Dude," Scott said in a worried voice this time. "What if you go into heat or something?"

 

Stiles rolled his eyes. "I'll go the hospital and either get a certified heat partner or drugs," Stiles said simply. "It's not actually terminal, Scotty."

 

Kira and Isaac joined them at the table. "Don't you already have an alpha?" Kira asked curiously. "I mean," she said with a blush, "if it's not too personal. Oh god, it is, isn't it?" she asked, mortified. "I'm sorry. I--"

 

"Kira," Stiles interrupted, placing a hand over hers. "It's okay. Really. I don't mind."

 

"That's right," Lydia said, furrowing her brow pensively. "Since you presented, you legally must have been assigned an alpha."

 

"Could be a family member," Isaac offered, glancing around. "What?"

 

"Your dad's a beta," Scott said, frowning now himself.

 

"I have an alpha."

 

"What? Who?" Scott asked.

 

"Derek," Stiles said, then shoved more food into his mouth, hunching his shoulders slightly. This wasn't exactly how he'd planned to let the cat out of the bag. As expected, all eyes stared at him. 

 

Isaac's mouth hung open. "You're with Derek?" he asked incredulously. "Why didn't he say anything? Why aren't you guys ever together?" he asked more confusedly.

 

Lydia spoke up then too. "Why would you go to a hospital for your heat if you have Derek?"

 

"Look, we're not like a couple or anything. Derek's an alpha. I'm pack. It made sense." Stiles shrugged. "And anyway, Derek's ace."

 

"Ace?" Scott asked. "What's ace?"

 

"It means asexual," Stiles explained. He sighed. He really didn't feel like giving a sexuality lesson to his friends over lunch, and he wasn't entirely comfortable discussing Derek's identity with the others if he hadn't come out to them himself. Really, Stiles only knew that Derek was asexual because it had come up when Stiles had approached the alpha about registering with him.

 

"Cells are asexual," Scott said. "People have sex."

 

"Scotty, I love you, and I'm sure you'll go far with all that advanced bio you're taking, but it means he doesn't want to have sex."

 

"Who doesn't want to have sex?" Jackson asked with a douchey frown. "And what the hell kind of alpha wouldn't bang an omega in heat?"

 

"Gross," Lydia said in a flat voice to Jackson. 

 

"I'm not going to throw myself on an unwilling partner," Stiles told him. "There's definitely a word for that."

 

"I doubt you'd have to throw yourself on him," Jackson maintained.

 

"Did you put all this in your essay?" Lydia asked Stiles. Merely existing as an omega in the right age range wasn't enough. Each omega was required to turn in an essay explaining why they'd be ideal for the position of Town Omega. Stiles thought it even more irritating than the annual mandatory essay on veterans, because only the omegas were forced to write one.

 

"Put all of what?" Stiles asked.

 

"That you're a virgin omega with an asexual alpha," she said. "If you didn't write that down and haven't handed it in yet, I'd put it down. You really have a chance to win this thing."

 

"I'm not running for Miss America," Stiles said with a roll of his eyes. But he did have to wonder whether she had a point. Not that he wanted to win. But he hadn't actually handed in his essay yet. And he was sick to death of omega stereotypes. He wanted a baby about as much as he wanted a chest-burster alien, and he barely had a domestic bone in his body. He wasn't sure he agreed with Lydia's assertion that his situation looked good on paper, but he kind of wanted to write how he really felt now just out of spite.

 

~~~  


"Oh my god," Stiles said for the hundredth time as he read and reread his letter of congratulations.

 

"You already said that like twenty times," Derek said as he snatched the letter out of Stiles' hands and finished reading it himself. "You won," he said flatly as he read the letter himself.

 

"I always maintained that Stiles was an ideal omega," Peter said with a creepy leer from where he sat on the stairs.

 

"Don't be creepy," Stiles warned with a glare, which Peter only returned with a smirk.

 

"Congrats," Lydia told him. They were all gathered around for their weekly pack night meeting and movie. "I told you you might get it."

 

"I think I might throw up," Stiles said.

 

"Don't be so dramatic," Lydia told him. She read the letter over Derek's shoulder, much to the alpha's annoyance.

 

"This is great!" Scott said. "You'll be in government and stuff. You were so worried about not being able to do the whole cop thing."

 

"Being on the town council is not the same, Scotty," Stiles said.

 

"You can still go to school for law enforcement and do something out of harm's way," Lydia said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "And anyway, the Town Omega position is largely ceremonial. It shouldn't interrupt your plans."

 

"I thought you said it was so important to government," Stiles pointed out.

 

"And it might be," Lydia said with a shrug. "You can try to get yourself out on the field. Maybe by the time you join the force you'll have changed a local ordinance or something."

 

Jackson snorted and didn't bother to comment. Stiles wanted to punch him in his douchey face but silently agreed with his assessment.

 

"You don't need me to go to this dinner thing, do you?" Derek asked with a scowl. In addition to offering Stiles congratulations, the letter informed him that he'd be required to go a special ceremony and dinner to publically claim his position. His ticket included a plus one for his registered alpha.

 

"You don't want to go to my acceptance dinner?" Stiles asked with a pathetic pout. Derek scowled some more in response and Stiles relented with a sigh. "Yeah, dumb question I guess. No, you don't have to go with me."

 

"How many tickets do you get?" Lydia asked, taking the papers from Derek. "I want to go."

 

Stiles was saved from having to answer by the blessed arrival of delivered pizza.

 

~~~

 

"Stiles!" Isaac said, jogging through the night to meet Stiles at his jeep before he left Derek's loft.

 

"Yeah?" Stiles asked. "What's up?" He didn't dislike Isaac by any means, but he and the other omega rarely had reason to talk alone.

 

As Isaac caught up to him, he glanced around and if Stiles didn't know better, he'd say Isaac almost looked nervous. Uncomfortable? Was it about his winning over Isaac? "About the dinner..." Isaac said.

 

"I really don't need to have anyone there," Stiles told him.

 

"Oh. Uhm. I was going to say I could go," Isaac said in a small voice. "That is, if you wanted me to."

 

Stiles blinked. It had literally never occurred to him to bring an omega with him. In lieu of his registered alpha, he'd briefly considered his father, who was a beta but still a parental figure. Stiles struggled to wrap his head around Isaac's suggestion. It was kind of genius. Stiles had been chosen based on his subversion of omega norms. His alpha was ace. He was a rare omega virgin in a sea of hormonal teenagers. 

 

"Like... an omega partner. As my alpha," Stiles said dumbly. "That's... kind of genius," he said honestly.

 

Isaac looked flustered. Probably unused to praise, Stiles thought, well aware of how insecure the other omega could be. "That's not -- that's not exactly what I meant," Isaac said stiltedly.

 

"What did you mean?" Stiles asked in confusion, totally lost now.

 

"I mean, I kind of like you?" Isaac offered. "Like I like-like you?" he said hopefully, then winced. "It's cool if you don't feel the same," he rushed to say. "I was always worried that you had an alpha but I didn't know how to ask and I didn't want to encroach. But then you said that Derek's ace, and you kind of implied you guys are like... open. On paper only. Did I read that wrong?"

 

"No?" Stiles asked. "I mean, yes. We're open, that is. Totally not dating Derek. I just... this is kind of news, dude. Give me a minute to take it in."

 

"Right. Sorry," Isaac said. "But just to be clear about something you said earlier. I wouldn't be the alpha in that scenario. When I suggested you take me in Derek's place to the dinner."

 

"But you'd be taking Derek's place as my alpha," Stiles said, still feeling dumb. "It's like the perfect subversion of omega stereotypes."

 

"Uhm. I kind of think of you as the alpha?" Isaac offered with another embarrassed little wince.

 

Stiles' mind was blown. In all of his years of railing against the stereotypes, he'd never once allowed himself to imagine himself in such a position. The idea of it gave him a rush. "Me?" he asked, dumbfounded.

 

"You always seem so dominant," Isaac explained. "Like you know exactly what you want and where you're going. It's usually an alpha trait, but..." he shrugged. "I like it in you. It's kind of hot."

 

"Did you say any of that shit in your essay?" Stiles asked. "They should have picked you over me if they were looking to break stereotypes." He shook his head in wonder.

 

Isaac shrugged. "I don't like to rock the boat," he said.

 

"We'd definitely rock the boat if we showed up at that dinner together and you were subservient to me," Stiles said with an amused smirk.

 

"You'd rock the boat," Isaac corrected. "I'd just be loyal and dutiful support."

 

Stiles grinned. "It's still a little early for me to decide if I want to date you, but I might suddenly love you," Stiles told him.

 

Isaac beamed. Some of the tension left his shoulders and he stood a bit straighter. Stiles decided he wanted to see more of it. Wanted to encourage the omega, see him bloom. It occurred to him that that really was what the alpha's position usually was, and was surprised that with as self aware as he usually thought of himself, he'd been blinded to that aspect until Isaac had pointed it out.

 

"So you'll come to the dinner with me, Omega Lahey?" Stiles asked with his best official-business tone.

 

"I'd be honoured, Omega Stilinski," Isaac answered with a grin.

 


End file.
